


Smoke on the Horizon

by distractionpie



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Fort Briggs, Gen, It's '03 with the assumption that Olivier commands Briggs as per Brotherhood just offscreen, No Dialogue, Post-Series Pre-Movie, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24443440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractionpie/pseuds/distractionpie
Summary: The death of the Fuhrer matters little to Olivier. That his accused killer has been stationed on the edge of her territory does.
Kudos: 16





	Smoke on the Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> I am usually a petty bitch who can’t warm up to new characters who dislike characters i’m already attached too because i am ridiculous and biased like that but Olivier won me over in a heartbeat, disdain for my established pet fave of Roy and all, because she is a queen and honestly he brings it on himself. And since I binge-watched ‘03 and Brotherhood back to back, I immediately linked Roy’s snowy remote outpost in CoS with Briggs and started thinking about what Olivier would make of having Roy in her territory during the 03’-CoS timeskip. So fic.

It's a slight, at the very least. 

Posting a man so far north without placing him under the auspices of the Northern command undermines her dominion over the region and is a pointed reminder that, while the people of Briggs know their true leader, on paper Olivier is still beholden to the whims of Central command. That it's Mustang is outright petty. It’s been a long time since her commanders have shown any inclination to meddle with her authority, there’s nobody more willing or capable of holding the wall against Drachma, but it’s not beyond belief that the shake-up in Central has caused fools to rise above where they should and think they can cement their new positions by meddling in regions they have no business with.

It may even be a threat, though it's poorly chosen if it is.

Whatever he may have done to the Fuhrer, Mustang alone is no hazard to Briggs, his flame tricks might melt a little snow but he is one man and by no means invulnerable to a true northern storm. And if he’s supposed to be a reminder of what happens to those who meddle in the affairs of those in power, the warning is misplaced. She is Olivier Mira Armstrong, and if she wanted to play politics in Central City then she’d be doing so, and reassignment is an empty threat: when she’d been given the command at Briggs it had been little more than a far-flung outpost on a front being held by the climate and mountains rather than the strength of its men, she built the north to the powerhouse it is today, in the event of a transfer her men would continue to thrive on her lessons and Olivier could build anew if she must.

But more than arrogant encroachment, or meaningless posturing, the presence of  _ Corporal  _ Mustang is a clear indication there is far more to what happened in Central than the tragic accident reported to the public or the even less informative ‘there was an incident, it’s been handled, don’t ask questions’ bulletin given to the other military command centres.

She may have to write to Alex. It’s possible that, if Olivier asks the right questions, there’ll be something of use to pick out of the sentimental claptrap he’ll no doubt send in reply. She might not care about Central squabbles over scraps of political power but nor is she content with being kept ignorant of what had happened, not when it ended with the Fuhrer's death.

There are rumours of assassination, but Olivier has already dismissed them. If it were a simple political ploy, then Bradley’s son wouldn’t have died alongside him; and though Mustang is a foolish climber, he’d never have been on the ladder of power at all if he didn’t have at least the basic intelligence to recognise that violently removing the Fuhrer without a wider plan would only let one of Bradley’s peers take his place and have the instrument of their ascension put in front of a firing squad. And Mustang is breathing and in Briggs. He hadn’t even been arrested, despite that there could hardly be a scene more incriminating than the Flame Alchemist found in the ashes of a lethal blaze. Olivier doesn’t believe for a moment that his demotion and reassignment was any sort of voluntary but the type accompanied by an ‘or else’ but, he'd been neither tried as a traitor nor fallen victim to a convenient accident to silence what his true involvement was, which means whatever rash manoeuvre Mustang was entangled with there’s still some support for him within the military bureaucracy. 

But did those sympathisers send him north because exile was a gentler alternative to execution, or is his presence for the purposes of espionage?

The latter seems more likely, command are not merciful, but if Mustang is a spy he’s doing a poor job of it.

The reports her men have given on his status are uninteresting, Mustang leaves the outpost once a week to send a telegram back to Central command but the message is consistently ‘no change’. He’s receiving personal messages too, but if there’s anything of substance in them they’re heavily coded and Mustang’s replies are so minimal that they’re little more than proof of life. Since he’s been posted here, he’s made no effort to present himself at the Northern command centre, and she wouldn’t have traipsed across the mountain to see him as a Lieutenant Colonel, she’s certainly not going to put herself out for a disgraced Corporal. If he or the people who send him here want something from her, he can come himself, and although Mustang is at the centre of the recent strange events, she doubts he’d give her any useful information.

There are also no reports of him using his alchemy, even though every alchemist Olivier has ever met has been an incorrigible show-off, Mustang more than most, and there’s no denying his abilities would be advantageous to life in the north.

Either her information is wrong, and Mustang is drawing on hidden talents to deceive Olivier’s men, or Central has finished what Ishbal began and extinguished the Flame Alchemist.

Olivier doesn’t have answers yet, but she will find out.


End file.
